ed her
before any other.

'Robbie! oh, Robbie!' she cried, in a tone of piercing terror, 'what
has become of my little Robbie?'

'He's safe, he's here, Meg,' answered Kitty, starting to her feet, and
rushing with him to Meg's attic.

It was no rough, weather-beaten seaman, who was just placing Meg on a
chair, as if he had carried her upstairs; but some strange, well-clad
gentleman, and behind him stood an elderly woman, who turned sharply
round as she heard Kitty's voice.

'Posy!' cried Mrs Blossom.

No one but her own mother could have known again the bright, merry,
rosy girl, whom the neighbours called Posy, in the thin, withered,
pallid woman who stood motionless in the middle of the room. Even Meg
forgot for a moment her fears for Robin. Dr Christie had only time to
catch him from her failing arms, before she fell down senseless upon
the floor at her mother's feet.

'Let me do everything for her,' exclaimed Mrs Blossom, pushing away Dr
Christie; 'she's my Posy, I tell you. You wouldn't know her again, but
I know her. I'll do everything for her; she's my girl, my little one;
she's the apple of my eye.'

But it was a very long time before Mrs Blossom, with Dr Christie's
help, could bring Posy to life again; and then they lifted her into her
poor bed, and Dr Christie left her mother alone with her, and went back
to Meg. Robin was ailing very little, he said: but the baby? Yes, the
baby must have died even if little Meg had fetched him at once.
Nothing could have saved it, and it had suffered no pain, he added
tenderly.

'I think I must take you two away from this place,' said Dr Christie.

'Oh, no, no,' answered Meg earnestly; 'I must stay till father comes,
and I expect him to-day or to-morrow. Please, sir, leave me and Robbie
here till he comes.'

'Then you must have somebody to take care of you,' said Dr Christie.

'No, please, sir,' answered Meg, in a low and cautious voice, 'mother
gave me a secret to keep that I can't tell to nobody, and I promised
her I'd never let nobody come into my room till father comes home. I
couldn't help you, and Mrs Blossom, and Kitty coming in this time; but
nobody mustn't come in again.'

'My little girl,' said Dr Christie kindly, 'I dare say your mother
never thought of her secret becoming a great trouble to you. Could you
not tell it to me?'

'No,' replied Meg, 'it's a very great secret; and please, when baby's
buried like mother, me and Robbie must go on